


Heartless Girls

by Chitra_Rive



Category: Dr. Carmilla (Musician), Steam Powered Giraffe, The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: (speedrun mode), Crossover, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Humor, Sympathetic Dr Carmilla (Dr Carmilla), apologies to the people who aren't in it, catmilla, knifecat carmilla, mildly nsfw jokes, this is written for a very specific audience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28932513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chitra_Rive/pseuds/Chitra_Rive
Summary: Still can love.Delilah Moreau is a vampire hunter. Dr Carmilla is a vampire. They don't get on very well.
Relationships: Dr Carmilla (Dr Carmilla)/Delilah Moreau
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Heartless Girls

**Author's Note:**

> again. this is written for a very specific audience. hello ella, remy, and andrea. thank you to anyone who's reading this! knowledge of both is best but not necessary!

A black cat wound her way through Delilah’s plants and around the leg of her desk. Brushing a leaf off her face in a dignified manner, she sat down decorously with her tail around her legs and contemplated the notes drawer. Tilting up her head, she looked to be brimming with curiosity, and as Delilah watched she stretched up onto her hind legs and tried to paw at the handle. 

“Hello, sweetheart!” Delilah got down on her knees next to the cat. “What’re you doing, hmm?” She outstretched her hand so the cat could inspect it. 

Nervously at first, the cat sniffed at her hand, whiskers tickling against her skin. Delilah laughed, her worries banished by the newfound animal presence. “You can stay here if you like, if you promise to be nice to the rats and birds.” She reached to scruff the fur on the cat’s neck.

And immediately was hit by an overwhelming wrongness. This did not feel like a cat. 

In Delilah’s- calling? Line of work? Penance?- she’d learned how to recognize other vampires. The instinctual feeling of kinship was quickly overcome by her intellectual knowledge that vampires were  _ bad,  _ were  _ wrong _ , were a sin against nature that never should have been committed. By nature, every vampire was a murderer, herself no exception. The cat wasn’t a cat, she was one of the creatures Delilah was hunting.

She felt guilty about doing it when the cat still looked like an innocent animal, but that was her duty. She grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck and pulled her upwards. “What were you planning on doing with my notes?” 

The creature growled and shook herself free. Knowing what she was, Delilah was suddenly more aware of her unnaturally sharp teeth and her robotic left eye. Size, as well- this was not a domestic cat, this was a wild serval. 

The creature leaped on her suddenly, her bulk bearing Delilah backwards and making her fall onto the ground from her already kneeling position. Vulnerable, the creature could scratch at her chest and arms and oh, of course, she was going for her neck.

Delilah knew how to deal with vampires- she grasped onto the creature’s jaw and forced it shut. Using her wings to propel herself off the ground, she pushed the creature back and got the higher ground. She tried to pin her under her foot, but the fur was slick and she was pushed back off, having to take to the air in order to avoid slipping.

The creature leaped onto her, latching onto her foot and digging in. Delilah gritted her teeth against the tearing pain and tried to shake her off. Despite the creature’s size, she was still a good deal smaller than Delilah, and she thought she might be getting free- and then she transformed. 

The tall woman now hanging off of Delilah was far too heavy to be supported by wings, and they went crashing down to the ground amidst the potted plants. The coral bells Delilah had been focusing so much love and attention on, the ones that had been almost dead when she bought them, were crushed beneath their weight, pots tipping over and dirt spilling out over both of them.

Delilah rolled over and got an elbow on the strange woman’s chest, but then slid off as the creature turned into a cat once again, yowling and biting Delilah’s arm. Her teeth were serrated and tore at it, ripping out bloody chunks. Delilah screamed, more in anger than pain, and gave into something more primal, clutching at the creature with white knuckles and pressing her face to the cat’s fur, trying to get a grip with her top fangs. 

They tussled in the dirt, sending sprays of it flying up and painting their faces in dust and blood. Delilah tore out piece after piece from the creature, but she regenerated almost faster than Delilah could hurt her. Delilah found herself pinned once again underneath, and kicked out, shoving the creature off of her. 

Next time she was trapped, she remembered how the creature would shift in and out of form.  _ Two can play at this game.  _ She shifted into a bat, using her instantly smaller size to pull out of the creature’s grasp and take to the sky. 

The creature, as a cat, leapt at her, trying to bring her down. Delilah flitted upwards to dodge. She thought she was out of range, but then the creature sprung up onto the desk and then from there towards her, bearing her down. Shifting had been a bad idea- there was a reason she hadn’t done it before, as a bat she was far more vulnerable to damage. She shifted back, forcing the creature’s jaw open from where it was tight around her body and then off her. 

Grasping onto one of her ears, she managed to keep a hold on the creature for long enough to be stable, digging into her flesh for a better grip. The creature shifted back and forth rapidly a few times, but Delilah had gotten used to her tricks. 

After cat, woman, cat, woman, and cat again, the creature finally seemed to settle on her woman form. She glared up at Delilah. Her cheeks were flushed bright from the exertion of fighting and her scarlet hair was in disarray across her face. She was beautiful, with angular features and dark eyes, but Delilah could see her fangs pulling at the corner of her mouth. 

“Good game, I suppose.” Her tone was teasing, like she was trying to purposefully poke at the person who currently had an advantage of her. 

Delilah dug her nails in further. “What were you doing with my notes?” 

“If you must know- I was trying to find something that could reverse my immortality. You’re the one besides me who’s done the most work in that field.” 

“Reverse your immortality?” Delilah couldn’t hide her surprise. “I never figured that out purposefully. I think I have to- stop all the others, before I can think about trying again.”

“That may not be correct. Or it may be. If you let me up, we could compare notes.” 

“And how do I know you won’t try to kill me again, hellspawn?” 

“You attacked first. I promise to behave. And if you’re going to call me something, my name’s Dr. Carmilla.” 

Delilah reluctantly let her up. Carmilla got up, wiping the dirt off her face in an echo of when she was a cat. “Dr. Morreo, but you can call me Delilah.” 

“You’re going to have to wait until we get to at least first base for my first name.” Carmilla smirked, looking like she was enjoying herself far too much. 

Delilah knelt down and tried to fix her plants, scooping the dirt back into the pots with her hands. The flowers were drooping and oozing sap out of the forced folds in their stems. Salvaging them may have been impossible, but after she figured out Carmilla she was going to try. “I think I can be satisfied with Dr. Carmilla for now.” 

“So,” Carmilla said, more businesslike than before, “You’re… another vampire.” 

“Unfortunately, yes.” 

“I used to think I was one of only two. Finding your little bubble of universes has been an unwelcome surprise.” 

“Bubble of universes? I was one of the pioneers of the alternate universe theory in my day, you know. I’d be interested in what you know.” 

Carmilla counted on her fingers. “That’s… 1894, yes?” 

“More or less. Tell me about this research to reverse immortality.” 

Carmilla hopped up and sat on Delilah’s desk, far too comfortable looking. She didn’t seem intimidated by Delilah at all. Delilah supposed that when you couldn’t die, threats became smaller in magnitude. That certainly had been the case for her. But she was used to other vampires being scared of her at this point. Carmilla’s casual disposition left her off balance and heart fluttering. “I didn’t manage to gather much on how to stop it, but I discovered a great deal about how immortality was caused. And- tested it.” 

“Tested it? You’ve made more?”  _ Condemned more?  _

“Yes, and I’ve had plenty of people telling me I’m irredeemable for it, so don’t think you can say anything I haven’t heard before.” 

“You know how awful being a vampire is. I’ve had to kill so many people, just by nature of how I exist now.” 

“Yes, which is why I ran tests to try and reverse it!” 

Delilah remembered when, in her desperation, she’d try and run experiments on her pets. It wasn’t a direct parallel, but if Carmilla was far older than her, and never managed to change the spell, that desperation would have increased and increased in magnitude. 

“Well, I found a bit of the cause as well but not directly how it worked, and I thought I’d come close to a cure. It didn’t work, but if you could look over it with me?” She fished her notes out of the drawer and spread them out on her desk. 

Carmilla inspected them with a critical eye. “What’s this diagram?” 

“It’s- this symbol corresponds with this alchemical one, see-” Delilah began outlining what she’d written. 

“Wait, I think our immortalities come from different sources. What’s yours?” 

“Green Matter. Some sort of energy source. It has necromantic effects on the people who use it, and even fuses machinery with people. I’m not sure if it directly aligns, but the related Blue Matter has several more well studied properties, the most notable being an ability to effect the different multiverses and create portals between them.” 

“Could this Green and Blue Matter be subsets of the Void?” 

“The Void?”    


“A category of forces, defined as being eldritch and extradimensional. My immortality is from the Weird, under that umbrella. My children are the Bifrost. Perhaps you’re Green Matter, under that same overarching label.” 

Delilah chewed on her nail. “Maybe I am. That’d certainly make converting this spell to work for you easier. We’ll have to do more research.” 

“What are some experiments we could run? Wait, do you have another piece of paper? Let’s write out everything we know about the Void and Green Matter and see what overlaps.” 

They continued to work together throughout the day. Eventually, Carmilla stretched, cracking her knuckles. “Well, we’ve been at this long enough. Would you like to go for lunch?” 

“What, together?” 

“Of course.” She bowed and offered Delilah a hand. “Any suggestions on somewhere? I’m still finding my way around this San Diego.”   


“I’m banned from the ghost bar,” Delilah admitted, “but I know a cafe near here.” 

Carmilla nodded to the apartment balcony. “Fly me down?”

“No,” Delilah said, and turned on her heel to go down the stairs. 

Carmilla chased after her, outpacing her as a cat bounding down the stairs three at the time and turning humanoid at the end with a flourish. 

“Follow me.” She strode across the street. A car halted with a screech of brakes to avoid hitting her. Delilah ran to catch up and slowed to walking pace when they reached the end of the street. 

“Do you enjoy getting hit by cars?”

“I don’t like waiting. Their job is to stop for pedestrians.” 

“Call me when you’re in the hospital.” 

“Are you offering to be my emergency contact?” Carmilla jumped up onto the wall surrounding the garden of one building and balanced on the top of it, keeping pace with Delilah. “I’d love to be able to change it from my deadbeat son.”

“You have a son?” 

“Yes, and he didn’t fucking show up the last ten times I was in jail. When I was  _ his  _ emergency contact I broke him out!” 

“I don’t think you should be doing the sort of things that end you up in prison on a regular basis.”

Carmilla chose not to acknowledge that. “His name’s Jonny d’Ville. We were in a band together for a bit.” 

“Oh, you like music!” Delilah flapped her wings in excitement. “I’ve never been much good at playing things myself, but I  _ love  _ listening.” 

“I’ll play you a little thing, then.” Carmilla reached for something on her back and realized it wasn’t there. “Damnit- left my ukulele on Silvana. I’ll just sing you a piece, then.” She started singing something, voice low and growly. Delilah found herself humming along. 

“Is that your song?” 

“Yes! It’s called Exhumed. About a very entertaining night I had once.” 

They arrived at the cafe. “I can pay,” Delilah offered. 

“I’ll just steal it.” 

“Let me pay because I don’t want you to commit a crime.” 

Carmilla pouted and sat down at a table with a huff. It was a very purposeful exaggeration and very endearing, despite Delilah’s attempts against reacting to it.

She paid for their food and joined Carmilla at the table. 

Carmilla sipped at her coffee. “It’s good, though not as good as machiya cocoa.” 

“Machiya?” 

Carmilla got stars in her eyes. “ _ Machiya!  _ They’re a sort of store; the best sorts, the Weird ones, have incredible cocoa, and matcha cake, and there are  _ cats.  _ Oh, I was actually going to say- we might be able to use machiya cocoa in the spell, it defends against the Weird.” 

“But it’s Weird itself?” 

“Yes, but see-” Carmilla outlined her research she’d done. It seemed that the Void restoring what it had taken was a common theme, what with ‘Loki’ and ‘Brian’ ‘s memories. 

“But does it have to be equivalent?” 

“I think, yes.” 

“We could find some Green Matter somewhere… maybe at Walter Robotics? Machiya cocoa should work for the Weird.” At this point, she’d finished her sandwich and coffee, but was staying in her spot, riveted by the conversation. 

Carmilla noticed this, and got to her feet. “We can discuss this while we’re walking back, perhaps?” She moved to take Delilah’s dishes. Delilah let her. “I’ve been quite enjoying our date so far.” 

Delilah had been aware that had probably been what Carmilla was aiming for when she’d agreed, but it was still disconcerting to hear it said aloud. “I suppose- I have been, too. It’s nice to be able to talk to someone.” She wasn’t  _ lonely,  _ per say, she had hundreds of friends, but majority animal and of course, non vampire. 

“It really has been.” Carmilla looked like she was considering something. “Can I-” 

Delilah nodded, and Carmilla leaned in and kissed her cheek. Fangs brushed against her skin, but this time, they weren’t sinking into her flesh. 

She drew back, grinning that cattish grin of hers. “Let’s go back to your apartment, shall we? We can get back to working on the spell. And perhaps after a night together I’ll consider giving you first name privileges.” 

“Oh, you don’t say,  _ Doctor.”  _

“If you say ‘Doctor’ like that in bed I’m leaving and never coming back.” 

Delilah hit her with a wing. 

“Hey! Alright, fine. Back on the subject of alchemy-” 

They headed back together, gossiping the whole way, and god help any cars that dared to come near them.


End file.
